CCI

- Competition Commission of India is a body of the Government of India responsible for enforcing The Competition Act, 2002 throughout India and to prevent activities that have an adverse effect on competition in India. It was established on 14 October, 2003.

- The Competition Act, 2002, as amended by the Competition (Amendment) Act, 2007, follows the philosophy of modern competition laws. The Act prohibits anti-competitive agreements, abuse of dominant position by enterprises and regulates combinations (acquisition, acquiring of control and M&A), which causes or likely to cause an appreciable adverse effect on competition within India.

- CCI established to protect the interests of consumers and to ensure freedom of trade carried on by other participants in markets

- SC held that "The main objective of competition law is to promote economic efficiency using competition as one of the means of assisting the creation of market responsive to consumer preferences. The advantages of perfect competition are three-fold: allocative efficiency, which ensures the effective allocation of resources, productive efficiency, which ensures that costs of production are kept at a minimum and dynamic efficiency, which promotes innovative practices."

- CCI to achieve these objectives, endeavours to do the following:

* Make the markets work for the benefit and welfare of consumers.
* Ensure fair and healthy competition in economic activities in the country for faster and inclusive growth and development of economy.
* Implement competition policies with an aim to effectuate the most efficient utilization of economic resources.
* Develop and nurture effective relations and interactions with sectoral regulators to ensure smooth alignment of sectoral regulatory laws in tandem with the competition law.
* Effectively carry out competition advocacy and spread the information on benefits of competition among all stakeholders to establish and nurture competition culture in Indian economy.

- The Commission comprises of a Chairperson and six members.

- Establishment of Appellate Tribunal and Director General

28-12-11

Economy:
- Cheque Truncation System (2010) - CTS 2010 standard:
Cheque is standardized - for easy transaction between diff banks, to avoid frauds - RBI - 1st April, 2012
- SBI new rules - (Self - Regulatory Authority ) - to investment advisors - to be formed under SEBI Regulations, 2004
mis-selling,
- TATA Power to buy out BP in solar JV

- BRAI

- National Policy on Bio-fuels
* aims to blend bio-fuel with petrol (bio-fuel - ethanol, bio-diesel)to 20% by 2017
* petro-chemical companies and oil companies
* no pricing policy - decided by Oil & petroleum ministry
* 30% increase in 2011 in diesel
* CCI to probe the Govt-OMC role under Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, 1969 repealed

- The airport, planned at an altitude of 4,436 meters in Nagqu prefecture, will be 102 meters higher than Bamda Airport in Tibet's Qamdo prefecture, currently the world's highest.

COP 17 - Durban

India's Statement at COP17:

http://unfccc.int/files/meetings/durban_nov_2011/statements/application/pdf/111207_cop17_hls_india.pdf

highlights:
- Target of generating 20,000MW of solar power by 2020
- In 2003, India needed 190gms of oil to produce a dollar of GDP; In 2009, we need only 140gms - 30% decrease
- For a very large no of poor in the developing world, the world has not changed, they cannot be expected to be legally bound to reduce their emissions when they practically have no emissions
- India is hopeful that Global Climate Fund (GCF) will be established at Durban
- Equity is a fundamental issue in Climate Change - deals not only with Common But Differentiated Responsibility(CBDR)

Issues of Climate Justice & Equity:

- http://www.globalissues.org/article/231/climate-justice-and-equity
- Per capita emissions of carbon in the U.S. are over 20 times higher than India, 12 times higher than Brazil and seven times higher than China.

Strait of Hormuz

- is a narrow, strategically important waterway between the Gulf of Oman in the southeast and the Persian Gulf. On the north coast is Iran and on the south coast is the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman.
- The strait at its narrowest is 54 kilometres (34 mi) wide, 200 mts deep
- Ships moving through the Strait follow a Traffic Separation Scheme (TSS), which separates inbound from outbound traffic to reduce the risk of collision.

United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)

- Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty, is the international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III), which took place from 1973 through 1982
- UNCLOS came into force in 1994, a year after Guyana became the 60th state to sign the treaty.[1] To date, 162 countries and the European Community have joined in the Convention.
- The UNCLOS replaces the older and weaker 'freedom of the seas' concept, dating from the 17th century: national rights were limited to a specified belt of water extending from a nation's coastlines, usually three nautical miles, according to the 'cannon shot' rule developed by the Dutch jurist Cornelius van Bynkershoek.
- The convention set the limit of various areas, measured from a carefully defined baseline. The ares are:
* Internal waters
Covers all water and waterways on the landward side of the baseline. The coastal state is free to set laws, regulate use, and use any resource. Foreign vessels have no right of passage within internal waters.
* Territorial waters
Out to 12 nautical miles from the baseline, the coastal state is free to set laws, regulate use, and use any resource. Vessels were given the right of innocent passage through any territorial waters, with strategic straits allowing the passage of military craft as transit passage, in that naval vessels are allowed to maintain postures that would be illegal in territorial waters.
* Archipelagic waters
The convention set the definition of Archipelagic States in Part IV, which also defines how the state can draw its territorial borders.
* Contiguous zone
Beyond the 12 nautical mile limit there was a further 12 nautical miles or 24 nautical miles from the territorial sea baselines limit, the contiguous zone, in which a state could continue to enforce laws in four specific areas: pollution, taxation, customs, and immigration.
* Exclusive economic zones (EEZs)
These extend from the edge of the territorial sea out to 200 nautical miles from the baseline.
* Continental shelf
The continental shelf is defined as the natural prolongation of the land territory to the continental margin’s outer edge, or 200 nautical miles from the coastal state’s baseline, whichever is greater.

India-UAE

- Bilateral Agreements: India and the UAE have signed a number of Agreements and MoUs from time-to-time, such as Cultural Cooperation Agreement (1975); Civil Aviation Agreement (1989); Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement (1992); Agreement to Combat Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (1994); Extradition Treaty (1999); Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in Criminal & Civil Matters (1999); Agreement on Juridical and Judicial Cooperation in Civil and Commercial Matters (1999); MoU on Defence Cooperation (2003); MoU on Manpower Sourcing in (2006); MoU on Political Consultations (2011).

- Joint Commission:
* The Ninth Session of the India-UAE Joint Commission Meeting (JCM) took place at New Delhi on June 5-6, 2007
* for promoting bilateral cooperation in the following fields: Trade & Investment; Combating Crime, Terrorism and Illicit Activities; Education, Culture, Youth & Sports; Health, Science and Technology, Agriculture & Environment; Manpower; Energy, Hydro-carbons, Petrochemicals and Fertilizers.


- Foreign Office Consultations (FOC):
* The India-UAE bilateral FOC took place at Abu Dhabi on September 19, 2010 where the Indian side was led by Ms. Vijaya Latha Reddy, Secretary (East)
* Both sides exchanged views on a series of bilateral issues as well as regional and international issues of mutual concern

- Economic & Commercial Relations:
* The traditionally close and friendly India-UAE bilateral relationship has evolved into a significant partnership in the economic and commercial sphere
* Indians have emerged as important investors within the UAE and India as an important export destination for the UAE manufactured goods.
* There are more than 450 flights per week between various destinations of India and the UAE
* India-UAE trade, valued at US $ 180 million per annum in the 1970s, is today valued at US$ 43.4 billion (2009-2010). The bilateral trade is likely to exceed US$ 50 billion during 2010-2011.
* For UAE, India is the largest trading partner.
* India's major export items to UAE are: Petroleum Products, Precious Metals, Stones, Gems & Jewellery, Minerals, Food Items (Cereals, Sugar, Fruits & Vegetables, Tea, Meat, and Seafood), Textiles (Garments, Apparel, Synthetic fibre, Cotton, Yarn) and Engineering & Machinery Products and Chemicals.
* India’s major import items from UAE are: Petroleum and Petroleum Products, Precious Metals, Stones, Gems & Jewellery, Minerals, Chemicals, Wood & Wood Products.

- Oil trade: UAE was the fifth largest import source of crude oil for India in 2009-10 with an import of 11.60 MMT crude oil.

- Investments:
* Total FDI from UAE to India is estimated to be US$ 1.8 billion.
* UAE is the tenth biggest investor in India in terms of FDI.
* UAE’s investments in India are concentrated mainly in five sectors: Energy (19.1%); Services (9.3%); Programming
(7.8%); Construction (6.8%); and Tourism and Hotels (5.6%).
* Prominent UAE companies such as DP World, Emmar, RAK etc have invested significantly in various sectors of Indian economy

-
Defence Cooperation:
* Both countries have regular exchange of dialogue in the field of defence with the signing of MoU on Defence Cooperation in June 2003 and setting up of Joint Defence Cooperation Committee (JDCC).
* The fourth Meeting of JDCC took place at Abu Dhabi in April 2011
* In recent years, bilateral Defence cooperation has been strengthened, notably in the field of defence training and supply of defence inventory, besides regular exchange programmes
* goodwill visits of Indian Navy ships to the UAE from time-totime. Three Indian Naval Ships, INS Teer, INS Krishna and CGS Veera, paid visit to the UAE ports in March 2011.

- Indian Ocean Naval Symposium:
* UAE hosted the meeting of the ‘Indian Ocean Naval Symposium’ (IONS) at Abu Dhabi in May 2010, where India handed over the Chairmanship of the IONS to the UAE.
* The Indian delegation in the meeting was led by Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Nirmal Varma.
* The third Naval Staff Talks between Indian and UAE Navies took place at Abu Dhabi in June 2011.
* The first ever India-UAE Joint Air Forces exercise took place in September 2008 at the Al-Dhafra base in Abu Dhabi.
*India has been a regular participant at the biennial International Defence Exhibition (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi.

- Cultural Cooperation:
* India and UAE have signed a Cultural Agreement in 1975.
* A bilateral Cultural Exchange Programme was signed for the period 1994-1996.
* UAE’s Ministry of Culture and organisations like Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (ADACH) have been close partners in organizing Indian cultural events such as the Indian Film Festival in November 2008, SAARC Film Festival in March 2009,
* Indian Paintings Exhibition: ‘Spectrum’ in November 2009.


- Indian Community:
* UAE is home to more than 1.75 million Indian expatriate community, being the largest expatriate community in the UAE. 15-20 per cent of the community is made up of professionally qualified personnel, 20 per cent belong to the white collar non-professionals (clerical staff, shop assistants, sales men, accountants, etc) and rest (about 65%) belongs to the blue-collar workers.
* There is also a significant business community from India. The Indian community has played a major role in the economic development of the UAE. It is respected for its technical competence, sense of discipline and its minimal involvement in criminal activities.
* One of its attributes is its non-involvement in local and regional political issues and the law-abiding nature. The economic boom in the UAE has created a huge demand for short-term immigrant labour and white collar non-professionals and professionals are coming in increasing number from India.

- Grievance-redressal mechanism:
* Over the last few years, steady improvement has been witnessed in respect of the grievance-redressal mechanisms for the Indian workers in the UAE.
* UAE’s Ministry of Labour and our Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs are working closely to evolve a new arrangement that would make the system of recruitment and contracting more transparent. Mission is in the process of launching projects, such as pre-Recruitment attestation, for the welfare of Indian workers.
* There is Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) for providing food, shelter, passage expenses etc to destitute workers/housemaids in distress.
* The Indian Workers Resource Centre (IWRC), with a 24-hour helpline, was inaugurated in Dubai by Hon’ble President of India, during her State Visit in November 2010.

* India and UAE signed an MoU in the field of Manpower Sourcing in December 2006 and are in the process of renewing it.

DTAA

- Double taxation is the systematic imposition of two or more taxes on the same income (in the case of income taxes), asset (in the case of capital taxes), or financial transaction (in the case of sales taxes).

- International double taxation agreements:
* In some cases, this requires that tax be paid in the country of residence and be exempt in the country in which it arises.
* In the remaining cases, the country where the gain arises deducts taxation at source ("withholding tax") and the taxpayer receives a compensating foreign tax credit in the country of residence to reflect the fact that tax has already been paid.

- European Union savings taxation:
* member states have concluded a multilateral agreement on information exchange

- Cyprus double tax treaties:
* Cyprus has concluded 34 double tax treaties which apply to 40 countries

- German taxation avoidance
* If a foreign citizen is in Germany for less than a relevant 183-day period (approximately six months) and is tax resident (i.e., and paying taxes on his or her salary and benefits) elsewhere, then it may be possible to claim tax relief under a particular Double Tax Treaty.

- India:
* India has comprehensive Double Taxation Avoidance Agreements (DTAA ) with 79 countries
* Under the Income Tax Act 1961 of India, there are two provisions, Section 90 and Section 91, which provide specific relief to taxpayers to save them from double taxation
* Section 90 is for taxpayers who have paid the tax to a country with which India has signed DTAA, while Section 91 provides relief to tax payers who have paid tax to a country with which India has not signed a DTAA.
* According to the tax treaty between India and Mauritius, capital gains arising from the sale of shares are taxable in the country of residence of the shareholder and not in the country of residence of the company whose shares have been sold
* Therefore, a company resident in Mauritius selling shares of an Indian company will not pay tax in India. Since there is no capital gains tax in Mauritius, the gain will escape tax altogether.
* India has and is making attempts to revise both the Mauritius and Cyprus tax treaties to eliminate this favourable treatment of capital gains tax.

- United States:
U.S. citizens and resident aliens abroad:
* The U.S. requires its citizens to file tax returns reporting their earnings wherever they reside. but some measures to avaoid double taxation:
1. an individual who is a bona fide resident of a foreign country or is physically outside the United States for an extended time is entitled to an exclusion (exemption) of part or all of their earned income (i.e. personal service income, as distinguished from income from capital or investments.) That exemption is $91,400 for 2009, pro-rated.
2. he United States allows a foreign tax credit by which income taxes paid to foreign countries can be offset against U.S. income tax liability attributable to foreign income. This can be a complex issue that often requires the services of a tax advisor.

Double taxation within the United States:
* Tax on Intangible personal property when a person dies - (does not exceed 100%) - can be taxed my multiple states claiming domicile.

- 'Double taxation' of Corporate dividends
- Pass-through taxation - opposite of double taxation

24-12-11

- Weekly Iron and Folic Supplements (WIFS) - Weekly supplements to fight adolescent anaemia under NRHM - to cover 3.2c of 5.7 girls and 2c boys - serves as entry point for counselling ado. girls and addressing their health and nutrition needs to RG Scheme for Empowerment of Ad. girls (SABLA)
- > 1/3 of maternal deaths are cos of Anaemia.
- supportive env for street vendors in 12th plan period - registration of street vendors, dev of markets, facilitation of access to credit, demarcation of vending spaces
- Tanzifco(Kuwat n the Gulf) forms JV in India for waste disposal in 70:30
- National Textiles Corporation - new logo ad brand identity
- U.S. Regulator approves new reactor design - The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission certifying producer Westinghouse's AP1000 reactor design - valid for 15 years - has enhanced safety measures
Ap1000 - 1,100MW , elctric pressurised-water reactor
- IRDA to dismantle current India Motor Thrid Party Pool due to alarming increase in the liabilities of the pool, inadequate provisioning by the member companies and inefficient management of the pool by the administrator

22-12-11

- Researchers at SRI International in California have identified a promising new way to produce liquid transportation fuels from coal without using water or generating carbon dioxide

E-COURTS MISSION MODE PROJECT

The Government is implementing a project for computerization of District & Subordinate Courts in the country and for upgradation of ICT infrastructure of the Supreme Court and the High Courts.

Under the project, 12000 courts in 2100 court complexes are expected to be computerized by 31.3.2012 and 2249 courts in 969 court complexes are expected to be computerized by 31.3.2014. The total estimated cost of phase I of the project is ` 935.00 crore. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) is the implementing agency of the project.

An E-Committee of the Supreme Court was constituted which is chaired by the Chief Justice of India to give overall policy directions to fulfilment of e-court programme. An Empowered Committee has been constituted in the Department of Justice to provide strategic direction and guidance to the e-courts Mission Mode Project. This Committee also has representative from the E-Committee of the Supreme Court.

Implementation of the project would result into online access to legal and judicial resources and trends, access to cause lists to litigants, advocates, prosecution and law enforcement agencies, availability of digitally signed court orders, issue of certified copies of orders & judgements within 24 hours, status of pending as well as disposed of cases, services through Information kiosks at court complexes, e-filing of cases, Video Conferencing facilities at Courts.

Till March 2011, an amount of ` 397.85 crore has been given to NIC for implementation of the project. The Budget provisions for the current year is ` 297 crore.

The State Governments will be required to provide the following for sustainability of the project:

All recurring expenses relating to the project

Procurement / maintenance of hardware / LAN items after present warranty ends

Deployment of technical manpower for ICT related troubleshooting at the courts after 30 months

Provision of internet connectivity for judges’ residence / court complexes beyond 2 years from the time of installation

Wiring for the DG sets for ICT infrastructure at a court complex other than in server rooms / judicial service center

Fuel & other recurring expenditure relating to DG sets

14-12-11

- Cable Television Networks(Control) - 2nd amendment bill approved in LS - this is to digitalise the sector - wont affect the cable tv operators; TV Ratings Points(TRP) fight will be less; No package based - consumer can take a single channel instead of a package

13-12-11

- Madras Regiment Centre(MRC), celebrated its 253rd Rising Day recently (Dec 4, 1758) - Robert Clive raised in consequent to the siege of Fort St George by the French - curerntly Only regiment in the IArmy that was not bifurcated after independence.
- Sohan Roy - Director of film 999
- Vineetha and Remya - the two Kerala nurses who sacrificed their lives after saving 8 patients
- Sodium Thiopental (generally used in anaesthesia) - in US used for executions - was exported by Kayem Pharma company due to lack of export controls
- Rajastan Patrika challenged the constitutional validity of Working Journalists and Other Newspaper Employees (Conditions of Service) and Other Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1955 - ---What the notification?----
- Decline in IIP for october - way out is to reduce interest rates and revive consumer durable demand - could worsen in case of declining consumer demand and falling investment
- Industrial o/p registered a -ve growth of 5.1% in October - $33b target set for textiles sector - 21 new integrated textile parks was approved in Oct, 11 - 2100 crore for establishing infrastructure

- Desktop virtualization (sometimes called client virtualization[1]), as a concept, separates a personal computer desktop environment from a physical machine using the client–server model of computing. - NComputing's (a firm for desk virtualisation) solutions are now used by AP, Rajastan, Maharastra in thousands of schools
merits:
-a user uses only 5% of the capacity of a powerful desktop mainly beavuse of the chips
- 50-50% savings in hardware costs, 90% in power saving
demerits:
- limited to basic computing needs

- Rural BPOs become the next tech hub
cos of untapped talent, low employment and operational costs eg: Rural shores has operations in 5 states; big firms trying to tap the talent and set up centres

- LS passed the LIC (Amendment) Bill 2009 on Monday - capital base of the state-owned insurer to R.100Crores on par with private insurers as per IRDA norms.
- Govt ll continue to provide sovereign guarantee (Government's guarantee that an obligation will be satisfied if the primary obligor defaults)
- allows LIC to allocate 90% or more such surplus

12-12-11

A preventable Tragedy:
- govt agencies not doing their duty and hospital administrators not complied with rules
- no preparedness plan - Indian way to adapt more rules and follow less
- In London , attention to details such as: provision of ski sheet and a rescue aid placed below the mattress of hospital bed to evacuate non-ambulant patients
- Standing Fire Advisory Council's recommendations - (updated in 1998) response time must not be more than 3 minutes
- took 15 mins in AMRI case
- distribution of fire stations and their locations
with a large and congested city like Kolkata should be reviewed

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EU Summit:
- a new fiscal rule - budgets if all the countries be either be balanced or in surplus - ll be incorporated in national laws of member countries
- Automatic correction mechanism - govts with budget deficits will face automatic penalties
- 500b euro permanent bail out fund envisaged under European Stability Mechanism Treaty - to be organized as early as mid-2012
- Agreement with France on private investors holding bonds of the countries in distress - EC declares their involvement depends upon "well established IMF principles and practices"
- ECB's on market intervention unclear

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- capital Delhi is 100